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Runoff

rainey

So, we’ve got this runoff in Georgia for a U.S. Senate seat. Rev. Raphael Warnock, Democrat – Herschel Walker, Republican.

Warnock, a Baptist minister with a Doctorate, is a proven commodity having served the balance of a previously expired Senate term. Walker, a Heisman Trophy winning college football player is…and it ends there.

Brutally speaking, these two names should never appear in the same sentence much less a ballot in a high stakes runoff for a major political office. Walker, a candidate who’s often shown his inability to finish a complete sentence while campaigning, has suffered more pratfalls than the late Buster Keaton in his last three pictures.

If Republicans tried diligently to find someone whose name should never appear on a ballot, they couldn’t have found a better candidate.

While the outcome of the re-match shouldn’t be close, the December 6th finish is not a foregone conclusion. Earlier this month, Walker finished about nine-tenths of a percentage point behind Warnock, forcing the second go-around under Georgia law. And that was out of nearly four-million votes cast.

“How,” you ask,” has this happened?” “How did someone so supremely unqualified get up so high on the GOP totem?”

The answer is purely political. Purely self-serving. Georgia Republicans want a senate seat so badly they handed their party banner to the next warm body through the door.

Thanks to a purely crass, also self-serving push from one D.J. Trump in the Republican Primary, that “warm body” was a former collegiate football running back with several ex-wives and numerous child support problems.

That’s it. That’s the whole deal. The Georgia GOPer’s want that seat so badly they don’t care about the ability and other qualifications of whoever’s warm ass they put in it.

So, Sen. Warnock, a man with more than adequate intellect and previous senatorial experience – who came just one-point-six-percent short of 50% plus one to win – has to gear up and do it again.

Sadly, intellect and high political acumen are no longer required abilities for participating in the U.S. Senate. Tom Cotton, John Kennedy, Bill Cassidy, Roger Wicker and half a dozen others are current examples of such.

In this space, the two preferred names – among many – who filled the higher qualifications were Frank Church and Mike Mansfield. Superb intellect and great political skill.

Georgians are going to have to do some soul-searching. They’re going to have to decide the right thing to do. They’ll have to determine if pure political gain is worth the sacrifice of quality and ability. Or, is the choice – to the State of Georgia – regardless of Party – someone else who would be a valuable commodity in the national political sphere.

From here – nearly three-thousand miles away – the answer seems obvious. Around the putting greens of Augusta or in the bustling underground of downtown Atlanta, the choice may not be so clear.

It would be well for Georgians to consider the long haul and demands of the office more than whose butt gets to sit where.

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